The Things written in the Desert Sand
by The Unwritten One
Summary: In the past, Naruto and Nailah where always together, until Naruto just got up one day and left Hatari. After all this time they meet again both older, both wiser, both stronger, but the long silence has created a strange distance neither of them seems willing too cross. Requested by the guest named Deflow. NarutoXNailah
1. Hatari's History

AN: Well, here it is: another story.

To nobody in particular: This story will contain a lemon at some point in the future (unlike most of my work thus far), it's a first for me but I'm looking forward to it. That's it.

To the guest who goes by the name of Deflow: Sorry for making you wait so long. Next time, if I'm taking to long, feel free to let me know, it works as extra motivation. I'm still not sure how to work all of it out story wise, but I'll manage. You'll notice I've taken some liberties when it comes to writing the story combined with your ideas and things. I hope you're not mad or anything, if you are, just let me know, and if you have any other ideas, just let me know too. I hope you like it and again sorry for being late...

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The things written in the desert sand

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_"__Have you heard? The wolf queen will be leaving Tellius soon. She has decided to return to Hatari."_

_"__Hatari? The land of the golden roads and crystal palaces? Such a wonderful place that must be. I can't imagine why anyone would ever leave such a paradise…"_

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In the very beginning, there was only Tellius. The lands stretched further, but the only place that had a name was the continent Tellius, the cradle of life. This was where the Zunanma lived, the race that was both human and animal. The goddess of Dawn lived amongst her children and everything was at peace.

Unfortunately, peace could not remain forever. The Zunanma changed, both in form and in mindset. They evolved into two different races, Beorc, humans blessed with wisdom, and the Laguz, humans with the ability to change into a beast, amongst who were various tribes. And both races fought each other.

During the large war, there were three tribes of Laguz, who saw that there was no place for them left on Tellius and chose to travel beyond the border of Tellius. The first tribe to leave the continent of Tellius was the tribe of the Kitsune, a mysterious tribe from which still is little known today. They crossed the Grann Desert and finally settled in the desert sand in a land they called Hatari.

The second and third tribe fled across the desert later on during the war, when their numbers had dwindled too much to survive on Tellius. These were the wolf tribe and the eagle tribe. When they reached Hatari, the Kitsunes welcomed them in their lands and the country was ultimately founded on cooperation and trust.

During the rest of the war, many more fled across the desert, although these fugitives only came in small groups, since no other tribes desired to leave Tellius. Where the whole continent remained at war, the habitants of Hatart, although their lives were not easy in the desert, were happy and all people of all races lived happily and equally, under the reign of the wisest of Kitsunes.

Even so, the goddess Ashunera, the creator of life, could no longer see her children stand against each other and she flooded the world. Only the continent of Tellius remained dry. This act brought the Beorc and Laguz to stop the war and they established borders in order to try and keep the peace.

In Hatari, this flooding came suddenly and most of the land became sea. Most of the people of Hatari were saved by the Kitsunes, who strengthened the highest mountains of sand with their natural knowledge of fire. They placed all people on these high mountains, but while saving their people, most of the Kitsunes drowned and only a small fraction of them remained.

When the goddess had seen what she had done by flooding the world, she rid herself of her emotions and became too separate beings; Ashera, the goddess of order, and Yune, the goddess of chaos, who both fell in a long deep sleep. And unless war would not be fought upon the whole continent of Tellius for a thousand years, Ashera would awake and destroy all life that was left.

Although the flooding itself was not undone, the water level decreased to some degree and the whole land of Hatari was once again left dry. Although they had suffered a great loss, the people of Hatari went on living. The flood had left behind a river that crossed their lands, which would provide them with fertile soil every year after the seasonal flooding. The remaining Kitsunes gave up their remaining power to the nobelest of wolves and under their reign Hatari became prosperous, becoming known as the land of golden sand. They were said to live in houses that shone like crystal.

These were the last tales of Hatari to reach Tellius, after which Hatari became a legend and after that a fairy tale after which it ultimately became completely forgotten. The people of Hatari had not heard anything from the continent of Tellius since the flooding of the world and they started to believe that they were the only survivors of the flooding. Tellius became something studied by scholars through ancient manuscripts.

Although it may believe otherwise, this isolation did Hatari good. Where people on Tellius were almost always at conflict, although war did not ravage the whole continent, the people in Hatari did not fight amongst each other. Race was unimportant. Although most royalty still consisted of the most full-blooded of them, powerful positions were distributed on the basis of ability and everyone was happy with this way of doing things.

Only a rough eight hundred years after Hatari had forgotten Tellius did someone dare to go out in search of land beyond the desert. Although there have been and will be hundreds of people who attempted to cross the desert, some successful, some not, but none of them documented, the first attempt after the passing of eight centuries was that of Nailah, Queen of Hatari, with only her loyal servant and the Heron prince, whom she had once rescued from death at the hands of the desert, at her side. She went, despite everyone warning her that there was no such thing as a land after the desert, in search of such a land, hoping to find prosperous and peaceful countries and their people.

And she rediscovered not just some land, but the whole continent of Tellius. Unfortunately, she found it in anything but a peaceful state. The tales of Ike Greil tell of how she and her loyal servant Volug too fought to restore peace, but this tale is not the telling of those tales. But after the long battles she fought, the wolf queen planned to her homeland and one can only wonder about the things that happened after that…


	2. Day 1

"If you don't want to go, I'll go by myself!" And with that Sasuke turned around and walked away from Naruto, in his usual 'I'm better than everybody else'-attitude. Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, not that it mattered much, since he already had turned his back. Now Naruto remained alone, sitting on a table – he was using the bench to rest his feet on – with a warm cup of good soup in his hands.

He probed the meatballs left in the soup with his spoon. He hadn't wanted to split with his friend, although said friend would barely let him call him an acquaintance, he refused to go to Sasuke's intended destination. For one moment it had even seemed like Sasuke would budge and postpone his plans to travel towards the destination, but as soon as it had become clear that Naruto refused to tell him his reasons for not wanting to go back to Hatari, Sasuke made an end to their travels together.

But there was nothing Naruto could do about that now and, after having finished the bowl of soup, he definitely needed to pick his own next destination. The townspeople had been very kind to him – even while they knew that he was not completely 'human' – and had allowed for him to stay for free at the very inn he was now sitting in front of, food included. In the end, although it had been a long time since he had been able to eat as much as he wanted, he had no plans for outstaying his welcome, and it was good food too.

"Why does he need to be such a prick?" he mumbled to himself as he stared at the bottom of his, now empty, bowl. Naruto considered getting himself another bowl, but instead someone unexpectedly put a hand on his shoulder, with quite some force too, causing him to jump up immediately.

"As energetic as ever?" Ike grinned.

"Well, what'd you expect me to do after getting hit like that?!" Naruto yelled back.

"I never planned on hitting you," Ike responded, "I suppose I could apologize for using to much force, though…"

"You should!" Naruto concluded as he sat down on the table again. Ike shrugged sat down on the bench and leaned against the table. Both of them could now look at the passers-by, but rather than focussing on that, Ike started a conversation instead.

"I saw Sasuke stomping away when I headed here." When Naruto didn't immediately respond he added: "Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"Yeah… So what?"

Ike shrugged again, "Just asking. Did you already decide where you're going next? I remember you guys were just travelling from one point to the next."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I figured we should try to get into Goldoa, like we were trying before you guys showed up, but now that prick suddenly decided he wants to go to Hatari all of a sudden."

"Getting into Goldoa should be easier now, right?" Ike mused, "but why not just return to Hatari? In just a few days a large group will be going, it should be easier travelling with lost of people."

"I know," Naruto mumbled, hoping to appear to be talking more to himself that to Ike, "I want to… but I don't… want… uhm… I just can't…"

Before Ike could pry into the meaning behind his mumbling, Naruto tried to distract him: "What about your prick, he's not here with you, so where is he?"

Ike laughed. He always had to when Naruto called either Sasuke or Soren a prick. There were many other people Naruto called pricks, but these two always made Ike laugh, especially when Naruto would refer to them as 'his prick' or 'your prick' to differentiate between the two. As soon as Ike was done laughing, which was not longer that a short 'haha' this time, he said: "Soren's playing chess or something with Shikamaru."

"So they're being boring again?"

"Meh, it's quite interesting, neither of us just don't have the patience for that sort of thing."

"I suppose," Naruto agreed.

After a moment of silence, Ike tried to continue his earlier line of questioning: "So you'll be travelling to Goldoa next?"

"I don't know yet," Naruto said, feeling his mood getting heavy again, "Sasuke wants to go to Hatari no matter what, so I'll be alone, that's for sure."

"Well, either everyone is going home or going to Hatari, so there's not all too much choice…" Ike turned to face Naruto – up until that point they had just been looking at the street in front of them – "There's just one thing bothering me: why are you so against going to Hatari?"

"I… uhm… Right now… I … I just can't," Naruto tried to sound convincing, but, quite obviously, failed miserably.

"What's keeping you hear? As far as I know nothing is. I mean: Hatari is your homeland. Don't you want to return there?"

Naruto frowned, already seeing his demise – he had no intention of revealing his reasons for not going to Hatari to anyone, not yet anyway – and tried to change the topic, again: "Well… What about you?"

"Me?" Ike responded, actually quite surprised.

"You're going to leave here. So, won't you miss it?"

"Of course, I'm going to miss it here," Ike said, sighing, "but I also want to see more of the world now that I know that there's still so much more to discover. And besides, I'm not planning on leaving forever."

"You aren't?"

"No," Ike said resolute, "I promised myself that I would one day return here. It's that simple."

"Why are you so sure that you'll ever return?" Naruto sounded as if he was doubting something.

"Euh…" Ike scratched at his temple, "I'm not, actually… But still, I'll try my very best to make it back here one day."

"And that's seriously all you have?" Naruto stared at him dumbfounded, "Your best?"

Ike thought for a moment. "Pretty much. Promises are nice and all, but I can't do anything but my best if I want to keep them, right? And since I promises Mist that I'd bring her souvenirs, I'll have to do everything I can!" Ike grinned.

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, as if he had suddenly remembered something he had almost forgotten, "I've got to try my best! And one day, I'll come back and keep my promise, believe it!"

Ike, not really sure what Naruto was talking about, smiled anyway. "That's the spirit."

"Just one thing," Naruto looked at Ike suspiciously, "What are you doing here in the first place?"

"What do you mean?" Ike looked surprised.

"Well, people are always running around and asking you to help them or something… I can't imagine you have time to just sit here."

Ike shrugged, "Okay, I give, you got me. I wanted to have a chat with you before I left." Naruto still looked completely unconvinced, so Ike continued: "Fine, I'm here on behalf of Volug."

Naruto expression changed into one of shock for a split second and then tried to continue as if he didn't know anything, which only revealed he didn't know how to keep a good poker face. "I… Uhm… I have no idea… I don't know… Uhm… who that is. Yeah, I don't know any wolf Laguz."

"I never said Volug was a wolf Laguz."

"I saw him fight, okay!" Naruto yelled, in a last desperate attempt to cover up for his mistake.

Ike looked at the desperate actions, and deadpanned: "That doesn't explain how you know his name was Volug."

"Fine," Naruto scowled, "I know Volug, but nobody else."

"You know Nailah."

And at this simple phrase Naruto's face was one of complete surprise, confusion and some other emotions, which only completed the whole picture of utter panic. This of course only confirmed it.

"O-okay, b-but what is the point behind all this…" he mumbled defeated.

Ike clasped his hands together and his expression turned more serious. "I'm not sure what's going on, but as far as I've understood it, you are a good friend of the two of them, or you used to be at least. I also know that you have put quite the amount of effort in avoiding them thus far."

"I know…" Naruto mumbled, "but I shouldn't talk to them yet…"

"Yet?" Ike questioned, then shook his head and continued, "Never mind that, but the reason I am here is that Nailah and Volug are upset about you not talking them."

"So you're here to tell me that I have to talk to them," Naruto said stubbornly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I thought we were friends but you talk as if you are the boss of me."

Ike grinned a bit. "I am your friend, but I am also their friend."

"I don't like where this is going…"

"We're leaving for Hatari in a week from now. I don't care if you go with us to Hatari or not, but either way, I want you to talk to Nailah and Volug."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll think of something," Ike smiled.

"You're just certain that I will cave in, aren't you?"

"Maybe, are you going to?"

Naruto looked ahead of himself, sulking.


	3. Day 2

_Author notes: Yes, yes, I'm horrible and I know it. But not much I can do about it now. I can tell you why I took so long writing this, but that wouldn't do much good now, would it? Just keep mentioning it if it takes to long._

_To the guest named Deflow: I quite like some of the pairings you mentioned, but to be honest, I'm not completely confident in working out pairings yet, so I'll focus on the main pairing for now, but if I can work in a nice moment for another pairing I'll definitely try it. I especially liked the story idea for a Rolf and Sanaki pairing, so I'll try to find some time to work on it.  
I thought I might have understood you wrong about when this story was to be, turns out I was right. I was planning on doing some flashbacks, so I can definitely include some to when Naruto left Hatari and his own adventures and a whole lot more stuff.  
I also think I have a general direction for the story to go in my mind now, so I was planning on working with that, but if you feel that the story is too different from what you imagined it to be, be sure to let me know._

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It was a warm afternoon. The sun's last rays peered just over the houses and the residents of the houses across the street sat on their balconies or were looking out of the windows to enjoy the warm feeling of light on their skin. At the small square nearby a few children weren't bothered by the cool shadow as they played soccer with an old leather ball. While they played their match they were being watched, by their parents, by the people looking out of the window, but also by Nailah. She had sat down at the edge of the fountain when the sun had still been shining on that spot, but at some point she had noticed the children play and watched the match with such interest that she had forgotten about the sun and its warmth, even though she was now sitting in the shadows.

Some time after the sun could no longer reach Nailah, her loyal follower walked onto the square and walked over too where Nailah was sitting. When he was near her, he didn't try to start a conversation, but just stood by her side, as he had always considered his duty. It didn't take long before Volug too started to watch the soccer match.

After some time passed in silence, Nailah spoke: "Isn't it wonderful that they can play like that?" After leaving a moment of silence, she continued: "Just now they got into an argument about whether or not one party had scored and instead of fighting about it they decided to make one boy the referee so that they wouldn't have to argue about it anymore. It truly is a wonder to see that children try their best not to fight. There are enough adults who could learn something from them."

When Volug didn't respond, Nailah looked straight at him. "Is there something on your mind Volug?"

After some trying to decide whether or not to tell Nailah, trying to consider her feelings as best as he could, Volug nodded.

"Well then, tell me."Nailah said, while she continued looking at him.

"I went to talk to Naruto," he spoke. He tried to see if Nailah was affected by the name he mentioned. She cast her eyes downward briefly but recovered almost immediately.

"What did you speak to him about?"

"I… I didn't speak to him at all."

Nailah returned her gaze to the play of the children, but still upheld the conversation: "That doesn't sound like you. You always go through with what you decide upon. Unless you have a good reason not to."

Sensing that this was cue for him to explain himself, Volug did so: "I ran into Ike. He said he'd already spoken to Naruto about taken the journey back to Hatari with us." Volug hesitated for a moment, afraid to see a reaction from Nailah, but she only turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue.

"He said he wanted to return to Hatari, but that he couldn't do that yet. Or thought he couldn't."

He saw the lonely look in Nailah's eyes and wanted to say something, but she was faster to speak.

"There's no reason to worry then." When Volug wanted to protest, she quickly continued: "He'll return someday. We both know we will." Although Volug could see the beyond the calm external of Nailah and sense her pain inside, he could not find words that would allow him to soothe it.

After another period of silence, Nailah rose and said that they'd best get some rest and they started to head for their place of stay. When they had almost reached their destination, a black haired young man blocked their path.

"Queen Nailah," Sasuke spoke.

For a moment she remained silent before replying: "There is no need for such formalities. We know each other from before I carried that title."

"Back then I had no idea that you were the successor to the throne," Sasuke replied coolly.

"And back then I did not know you were the second son of Fugaku Uchiha."

At Nailah's statement, both Volug and Sasuke seemed surprised. Sasuke's expression turned darker at the revelation that she was aware of his identity, and most likely a large part of his part.

Volug looked at Nailah and whispered, although still louder than he intended: "So he's Itachi's…"

"His younger brother, yes." Nailah turned herself to Sasuke again. "What can I do for you?"

"I want to go to Hatari." He declared.

"That's fine by me." Nailah said in a tone that fitted her usual role as a queen, but had a slight hint to it that suggested that she failed to see why Sasuke thought he needed to get her explicit approval. "But make sure to notify Soren by tomorrow that you're coming. He'll need to make sure we have enough supplies for you during the journey."

Nailah prepared herself to continue walking to her destination, but Sasuke stopped her.

"That's it?" He questioned.

"Yes, did you expect anything else?" Nailah waited for him to answer.

Sasuke was grinding his teeth and racking his brain. He needed to talk to her about _that_, but he couldn't expect her to just give him what he wanted, not when he couldn't offer her anything in return.

"It seems we're done here," Nailah said, more to Volug than to Sasuke. Following these words she moved forward, past Sasuke. At that point Sasuke turned around and said firmly:

"I can get you Naruto."

When she held still, Sasuke knew he had caught her attention. Now all he had to do was make a trade.

Nailah looked over her shoulder at Sasuke. "What?"

It was not exactly the reaction he had expected, so he repeated himself, clearer this time.

"I will make sure Naruto returns to Hatari, not in a few years. I will make him leave with all of us, six days from now."

Nailah looked at him, studied him. She still did not show any sort of emotion. Volug however looked from Nailah to Sasuke and back, with narrowed eyes, openly showing his distrust.

After a long while of silence, Nailah spoke:

"It seems we have some talking to do."


	4. Another Day Before Departure

**So apparently my computer thought it'd be fun to screw with this chapter before. To anyone who was troubled by this I apologize and I would like to than those who commented on this, which made me check again. Hope it looks good this time.**

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"Don't you dare say that again!"

"Why? Because it's true?"

In response Naruto tackled Sasuke to the ground, something the latter had anticipated, but let happen so he could place a knee in the formers stomach. Naruto groaned but didn't let go, instead trying to punch him in the face, but Sasuke was able to throw himself up from the ground by sheer force, knocking Naruto off of him in the process.

"You know there is nothing here for you anymore. There is nothing that these ignorant people can do to get you what you want!" Sasuke shouted back.

Naruto shouted back at a louder, but less clear voice: "You don't know that! You're only saying that because you're too much of a prick to admit you only care about one goddamn thing!"

"Don't talk to me like you know me! At least I have something to chase after!"

"Liar! You know I do too!"

"Then stop being an useless idiot and realise that staying here won't do you any good!"

The two had been half fighting, part discussing like this since morning. The bystanders had become interested, excited, bored, disappointed and then lost any care at all for the two guys. Most dull about the whole thing was that they had these fights daily for the past few weeks, always with the same result. Both of them upset and swearing they'd never talk to each other again and then doing it all over again. One had to admit though that the cycle of them fighting, giving each other the silent treatment and then fighting again was the basis of their friendship.

To Naruto it seemed that Sasuke was more determined than ever to drag him back to Hatari, no matter how much he always swore to get as far away from him when he got the chance. To Sasuke, Naruto was just the same unreasonable idiot as always.

Their 'argument' went on like this for a while longer, with both of them dealing out and receiving a few punches, kicks and whatnot, but with neither of them willing to back down. In the end, both of them were laying on the grass, staring up at the sky while gathering their breath.

"For heavens sake, we fought a goddess and you're still complaining that you're not ready," Sasuke turned his head to look Naruto in the eye, "What's holding you back?"

Naruto took a deep breath and puffed up his cheeks, not willing to give Sasuke any reply. After a while Sasuke indeed gave up, got back on his feet and said, while dusting off his clothes: "Fine, just keep laying there like the idiot you are, you know what I'm saying is true."

And although Sasuke stormed off, in the back of his mind he was also rather mad at himself. After all there was something else riding on the ultimate result of this argument, something that would benefit him as well.

Naruto kept lying on the grass. He could feel it tickle slightly against his skin. Although at first he stubbornly refused to think about what Sasuke had said, after a little while, he noticed that he was giving it some thought after all. And while he was thinking things over he was not aware of the fact that someone was walking over to him.

He only noticed that Volug was there when he was standing over him. He jumped to his feet and turned to look towards Volug. The first moments, neither of them spoke a word.

It was Naruto who felt the need to break the silence first: "Sooooo… you're here too?" To which Volug's glare only intensified. While neither of them had spoken to each other ever since Naruto had left Hatari, they had both seen each other while they had been fighting side by side, sharing meals and encampments together. Naruto's feigned ignorance only irked Volug.

"You knew we were."

"Well, why didn't you talk to me?" Naruto said while putting his arms behind his back, trying to play it off like he didn't care. Volug stared at Naruto in silence until he continued: "Okay, fine, it's not like I said anything to you guys either. Geez…"

After another moment of silence, Volug replied: "Nailah wanted to." Naruto's face lit up. "But I told her not to," Volug continued, after which Naruto's face clouded over again. "You hurt her deeply when you disappeared. I begged her not to talk to you, so she send me."

"Why would you ask that?" Naruto asked confused.

"Because I didn't want you to hurt her again."

"I… hurt her…" Naruto muttered to himself. "I never…"

"I know," Volug replied, "and somewhere she does too. But that doesn't mean it never happened."

"But what if I hurt her again? If I go back and do it again? I don't want that."

"Nobody wants that." Volug breathed in deeply, "but Nailah wants you to come back. She's willing to take that risk. And if she is, so am I. But are you willing to take that risk?"

"I… I don't know… I… I'm scared… to do that," Naruto stared at the ground. The grass felt so nice before but now it seemed so mundane, so insignificant.

"We're leaving soon," Volug said, "I won't say anything to Nailah. But you need to make up your mind. We're going with or without you. If you ever plan on returning, now is as good a time as ever."

And with those words Volug left Naruto alone. Naruto breathed in deeply and then walked into the opposite direction.

He didn't feel angry, not towards anyone but himself. He felt frustrated with the situation. While there was truth and reason in everything people told him, his instinct, his feelings, had always told him that he had to keep going this direction on the path he had laid out for himself. And now his belief in what he thought was starting to show cracks in it's funding.

This gnawing feeling of confusion made him feel suffocated, as if he was breathing in ashes or the finest of sand and dust. A burnt smell he had always somehow associated with this feeling hung in his airways. He had to get away from people so nobody saw what he knew was coming.

It was not something he had under control, or had ever been able to control and he considered the possibility that he would ever have it under control less than nothing. So he had to keep it a secret from everyone but himself. The feeling of burning that had started within the deepest of him was now heating up his skin and each breath he took was more a gasp for air than anything else.

He felt the burning concentrating in his fingertips, fighting for a way out, a release. He stopped running, assured that he was away from anyone and anything.

There was a flash of light and a fire bolt shot up into the sky.


	5. A long time ago

**Author note: It's me, begin sorry for updating way too late again. My sincere apologies to you all and especially to Deflow, who requested this. I have a better idea now on how to continue this story, but I shouldn't promise you guys anything. Deflow, if you're still willing to put up with me, would you consider sending me ideas in a PM or something? I know I'm terrible, again my apologies. **

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_At moments like this, no one knew who she was, and at these moments, she was free._

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It was a morning many years ago and the sun was just starting to rise above the flat, clay rooftops of Hatari's capital. It was a bright day and although the wind never ceased completely, it wouldn't whip up any sandstorms on this day. Although it was early the streets were already full of life making full use of the time before the sun would reach it's highest position in the sky and the stones couldn't be thread without scalding yourself. During this time all people would go inside their houses and hide in the cool clay huts these were. They have a saying about this time of day in Hatari: only a Kitsune can go outside during midday, or something similar. Unfortunately no one knows for sure since the bloodlines of Kitsune's have long since died out or disappeared.

The colourful cloth roofs of the market stalls were like a rainbow spread out on the street and in between the colours people walked. They shouted to each other over the price of vegetables and fruit, milk and meat, cloth and wood, and an abundance of other things. Mothers dragged their young children behind them, while the older ones helped het carry the purchased goods. The mother herself being careful not to loose any of them out of her sight in the mass of people.

Among all these people one child squeezed past all the masses, not going in any direction in particulair, but simply marvelling at all the sights, sounds, smells, the whole experience of being here, right now. Behind her another child pushed through the moving hordes of people, trying not to loose her out of his sight. She however had little regard for getting lost in the mob and ran from one point from another, and the boy behind her had no other choice than follow her and hope he could keep up.

Some of the persons pushes aside by them in their haste muttered to themselves, some even shouted at them. They assumed they were some of the orphans who roam the streets of cities, begging and stealing in order to survive, they didn't know how wrong they were.

The girl had never liked all those confinements she was confronted with everyday and had escaped them for a moment, even thought she realised that this moment of freedom could be brought to an end at the very next one and that there were going to be serious repercussions for her escape from the grasp of her guardians.

The girl was Queen Nailah, at the time Princess Nailah, who spent most her days locked up in the castle, far away from the eyes of the public and the boy who followed her was Volug, who had caught her escaping from the castle, but had had to make a split second decision and had chosen to keep an eye on her rather than report it and loose sight of her, something he was still at risk of doing.

Rather luckily for him, Nailah had separated herself from the crowds in the main streets and was now exploring alleys. It was cooler here, and there was more shadow. There were no street vendors here, only houses. There were more homely scenes here. Young women where doing the laundry and preparing food. A couple of them were weaving something. The few men who remained at home were maintaining tools or carrying buckets of water home from the well. Most men would be at work at a day like this.

Even here two unsupervised children didn't draw any attention, so it was fairly easy for the two to walk calmly through them. Nailah had stopped running, but was still looking around in awe of all the simple things of daily life. Volug, who was more familiar with these activities – he had seen maids and other servants in the castle do these on a nearly daily basis – was more on the lookout for people who might prey upon Nailah.

After they had turned a few corners, they could hear other children in the distance. They were yelling and screaming of joy and anger, as children do when they play outside. Nailah picked up on the sounds and stood still for a moment, trying to determine where the sounds were coming from. Then suddenly she dashed off.

The source of these sounds was at a small square, closed off from most of the main roads and a local store stored a few boxes with supplies in the corner. The ground was uneven but despite that a group of kids around the age of Nailah and Volug were playing a ballgame. Most of them had the ears and tails, the trademarks of wolf Laguz, two of them were an exception. One, with blonde hair, had a pattern on his face reminiscent of whiskers, but bore no other apparent trademarks. The last of them had black wings and was frequently accused of using them to gain an unfair advantage by the others. It was this boy who first noticed Nailah and Volug, who were just standing around, gazing at what was happening in front of them.

"Who the hell are you?!" He snapped at them.

Volug immediately became defensive: "Don't you dare talk to her like that! She's - " But Nailah elbowed him in the stomach. She wasn't planning on having her day ruined this early by revealing her identity.

"Can we join?" She asked, ignoring the raven boys question entirely.

The boy with whiskers came up to them, while the rest seemed to wait impatiently to get back to the game. "Do you know how to play?"

"Well, no..." Nailah started, but the raven cut her off.

"Then no! You can't join!"

"Pfff, shut up Sasuke!" The blonde boy said to him, "As if you knew how to play before we taught you! Besides you're only here because your brother makes you!"

"He doesn't! He..." Fed up with everything, but unable to figure out the right words he snatched the ball out of the blonde's hands who had been holding it since the start of the conversation. "You explain it to them."

"Don't worry about him," the blonde boy beamed, "He's just a prick." A few of the others shouted at him to hurry up. He looked over his shoulder but turned to Nailah again. "I guess I better tell you the rules. I'm Naruto by the way."

She smiled in response. "Nailah."

* * *

She couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun. Volug will tell you he was too busy watching out for Nailah, but he had a good time as well. For a moment neither of them had to wonder about their responsibilities. But unfortunately, after a while the sun rose to it highest point and more and more of the children began to go home.

Nailah didn't notice it at first, enjoying herself so much that she was oblivious to anything else. It was Volug who alerted her to this fact after a while after which she felt really disappointed. For once agreeing with something, Sasuke also concluded that it had become too hot and took the ball, which turned out to be his, and went home. The only one not bothered by the heat apparently was Naruto, who complained that they were all acting like wusses.

"Lets go, " Volug tapped Nailah on the shoulder, "Everyone is most likely panicking by now." She sighed, knowing what that meant.

"So you'll be going too?" Naruto said, disappointed. He had rather enjoyed playing with his new friends. They didn't pick on him as much as the others and treated him as a just another kid. Although they didn't know about his heritage... He wondered if he could just keep it that way, he could finally have some real friends.

He hesitated, not knowing whether or not he should ask. In the end he wanted to have asked this, since otherwise he might never know. "Will I... Will you come play with us again sometime?"

Nailah looked at her feet, knowing that escaping the guards eyes another time would be even more difficult. But she raised her head when she replied: "I'd love to. I just... I hope that I can come by again."

"You will!" Naruto grinned. "We'll play again. Believe it!"


End file.
